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Nintendo has announced that it is delaying this week’s Nintendo Direct after a powerful earthquake struck Hokkaido in Japan. Its latest online showcase had been scheduled to go live at 11pm BST on Thursday 6th September, however in a tweet this morning Nintendo announced that it had decided to defer the broadcast.

Due to the powerful earthquake in Hokkaido, Japan, we have decided to delay this week’s planned Nintendo Direct. We will provide a new time and date in the near future. Thank you for your understanding. pic.twitter.com/IITgJFtzub

I must admit, I wasn’t even aware that an earthquake had occurred owing to the lack of coverage on my usual go-to news source. However, from what I have been able to glean from Google, it happened just before dawn and registered 6.7 on the Richter Scale. At the time of writing, over 150 people are reported missing and seven people are confirmed to have lost their lives.

Hokkaido, for those of you who don’t know, is a northern island of Japan that’s home to around five million people. Today’s earthquake has caused a number of landslides and buried a large number of homes, leaving 150 injured and dozens more missing. Furthermore, three million homes are currently without power.

A new time and date for the planned Nintendo Direct will be announced in the near future. This is terrible news and I think Nintendo has absolutely done the right thing in deferring the broadcast.